TWO men had to be dragged out of a High Court dock screaming and protesting their innocence yesterday after they were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.
Their struggles and cries could be heard in the courtroom for some minutes after they were taken out.
The judge told jurors, who looked shocked at the outburst, that murder cases were often distressing and he was sorry the end was upsetting.
Orlando Pagatpatan, 22, and Mario Delos Reyes, 43, were convicted of murdering Vera Cruz Eduardo, 35, after an argument in Sai Kung on February 18 last year.
Mr Justice Stuart-Moore told the defendants after their conviction that there seemed to be no motive for the killing.
If the motive was that the victim had called a 21-year-old colleague a drug addict, the judge said it was so trivial that it was almost beyond belief a murder had been committed because of it.
He said the 21-year-old told his mother and she asked her lover, Marlon, and the two defendants to help sort it out.
